1977 jon matlack

jon matlack got the autograph placement (along with an ever so slight photo cropping) variation on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

take a look at his cleat.  now, here's the topps front:

topps gives us a tad more of the left foot.  looks like o-pee-chee just moved the photo slightly north-south.  now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

a carl furillo reference!  and a firearm!  those were the days.

matlack enjoyed (maybe enjoyed is not the right word) his final season as a met in 1977.  he had been an all-star in 1976 and even finished 6th in the cy young award voting, but his 1977 season was bad.  he finished with a record of 7-15 and a 4.21 era.  3 of his 7 wins came by shutout, but i'm too lazy to see how many wins the mets' bullpen might have cost him.

after the season, matlack was dealt to the rangers in the bert blyleven/al oliver deal that netted the mets willie montanez, tom grieve, and ken henderson; and as a bonus, we got a fantastic team and text variation for matlack in 1978.

voici à vous, 1977 jon matlack!